Halloween Brownies Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: 30-35 minutes
Makes: 9 brownies
- 250g/8.8ozs dark or milk chocolate bits
- 140g/4.9ozs butter, cubed
- 180g/6ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 125g/4ozs cake flour (see note above)
- 60g/2ozs cocoa powder
- 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
- 180g/6ozs milk or dark chocolate chips
Royal Icing
- 200g/7ozs icing or powdered sugar
- 30g/1oz egg white
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Other Decorations
- Green chocolate melts
- Dark chocolate melts
- Orange food colouring
- Candy corn
- Candy eyes
- Green ball sprinkles
Step 1 PREPARE- Preheat oven to 180C/250F or 160C/320F fan forced. Line a 20x20x5cms or 8x8x2inch square baking tin with parchment on the base and sides.
Step 2 WET - In a large glass bowl melt the chocolate and butter together in the microwave or over a double boiler. Stir with a spatula until smooth. Then add the sugar and stir in well and then add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time until combined. The batter will be slightly grainy but smooth.
Step 3 DRY - Sift the cake flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the wet mixture and then mix everything together. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix vigorously until the batter becomes shiny (around 2-4 minutes of constantly mixing). The batter will start to pull away from the sides of the bowl and become shiny. Stir in the chocolate chips. Place the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top over with an angled spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes until set. Cool completely.
Step 4 ROYAL ICING - Whizz icing sugar in a food processor until all lumps have disappeared (30 seconds or so). Then add in the egg white and process. Scrape down the sides. Then add the lemon juice. Thermomix directions: place the icing sugar in the Thermomix bowl and set to 10 seconds/speed #6. Add the egg white and set to 10 seconds/speed #5. Scrape down the sides and add lemon juice and set to 10 seconds/speed #4. Check that the icing consistency is right-if it is too "wet" add more sifted icing sugar, if it is too dry then add a drop of lemon juice. It should be able to be piped. For royal icing, you want a stiffer consistency for the outline and then a slightly wetter consistency to fill the outline once it has set.
Candy Corn: adhere the candy corn to the brownie using some royal icing.
Spider web: pipe a spider's web in white royal icing
Spiders: Melt dark chocolate and draw spiders with 8 legs. Use sesame seeds for eyes.
Pumpkin: Tint royal icing orange using food colouring and draw a border of an orange circle using the stiffer royal icing in a small piping bag. Then once set, fill in the centre with a slightly more liquid orange royal icing (1 drop of lemon juice will do!). Then once this is set, draw 4 curved lines with the stiffer orange royal icing. Draw the stem with green chocolate.
Frankenstein's Monster: Melt green chocolate melts and spread across a brownie. Place edible eyes and then chill to set. Melt dark chocolate and place in a small piping bag. Draw jagged fringe and a scar mouth.
Ghost: Fill piping bag with white stiff royal icing and draw outline of a ghost. Once this has set, fill in wtih more liquid white royal icing and affix eyes.
Mummy: Place two eyes on a brownie and pipe white royal icing stripes across the eyes to form a mummy face.
Witch's Hat: Draw the top of the hat in dark chocolate and add an orange band with stiff royal icing. Draw the brim of the hat with dark chocolate.
Petri Dish: Melt green chocolate melts and spread across a brownie. Cover with lots of eyes and green ball sprinkles.
Substitution Notes :
You can use your favourite chocolate chips as mix ins (white chocolate would be great) or you can sub with chopped walnuts too.
Personal Note
It's definitely the witching season and things have been busy at Elliott Manor (and by manor I mean an old house!). I mentioned Teddy had to go in for an emergency dental and then Milo had to go into the vets for another matter. It had to do with a ruptured gland in the nether region - I won't go into specifics but dog owners will know what I mean.
One afternoon we noticed that he was stopping on our walk constantly to try and lick that area and by that evening my worry about my son had escalated into a midnight emergency vet visit. It probably could have waited until the next morning but we thought it had to do with the new pork trotter chews and him swallowing some bone so we thought that it was more of an emergency.
Teddy accompanied his brother Milo to the vet with us and the two dogs could not have a more different reaction. Milo ran in excitedly greeting the nurse, vet and receptionist and got lots of attention while little Teddy shook in his daddy's lap, bad memories coming to the fore.
Poor Milo came home with a cone, albeit a soft one (we had bought them a soft donut cone but it wasn't big enough and he could reach). The vet told us that he had to wear it for five days until he stopped trying to lick.
The first day he looked miserable and confused as his collar bumped into things. He couldn't walk up or down the stairs and he couldn't use the doggy door. The second day was much of the same. By the third day he was starting to come to terms with this collar and by the fourth he was running up and down the stairs and jumping on the bed.
He also resumed his habit of hanging around the kitchen begging for food including this chocolate brownie. I had to explain to him that this brownie was strictly off limits to him, because we don't need a third visit in as many weeks!